Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Dec. 1, 2015) –
John Moon's hot streak continued Tuesday night, which made things much easier for Oklahoma Christian in the Eagles' game against Dallas Christian (Texas).
Moon poured in 37 points on 15-of-22 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds in just 27 minutes to lead OC to a reasonably comfortable 104-82 win over the Crusaders in the Eagles' Nest.
Moon has recorded three double-doubles in OC's last four games and missed making that a four-game streak by only one rebound in the Eagles' previous game against Oklahoma City University. During that stretch, the 7-foot junior center from Crescent has averaged 29.3 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots per game.
Not coincidentally, OC (2-4) has won two of those games and he earned both the Heartland Conference and OklahomaSports.net state college player-of-the-week honors for his efforts.
Dallas Christian (1-8) started 7-foot Ivan Rangel on Moon, but Moon immediately established control with four baskets during the first 4½ minutes. After that, the Crusaders tried going small against Moon, even using a 6-foot guard against him at times, but it didn't seem to matter, with Moon routinely receiving entry passes from
Jordan Rutherford,
Daniel Eibel and
Deric Shelton, among others, for easy baskets.
Moon had 21 points by halftime, pacing the Eagles to a 54-37 lead. His dunk with 7:25 left in the first half ignited a 14-2 run that gave OC some breathing room on the scoreboard.
The Crusaders came no closer than 14 points in the second half, the last time at 72-58 with 10:35 left.
Chiza Ntirata hit two free throws,
Cameron Peters dunked after stealing the basketball and followed with another basket to rebuild the Eagles' lead to 20 points.
Moon left the game with 3:20 left, just one point shy of his career scoring high of 38 points, set last Friday in a win over Southern Nazarene in Edmond.
Rutherford finished with 13 points and matched his career high with eight assists (having also recorded eight against SNU). Ntirata had 12 points and six rebounds, while Shelton had 12 points and a career-high five assists. Eibel had a career-high five assists and
Luis Lopez also matched his career high with three assists, all to Moon.
The Eagles finished with 27 assists on 38 baskets and shot 52.1 percent from the field (38 of 73), a season high.
Trey Lindsey led Dallas Christian with 25 points, while Edgar Guereca had 17 points on 5-of-13 3-point shooting.
The Eagles will face a tough task in their next game – a road trip to NCAA Division II's No. 3-ranked squad, Midwestern State (Texas), on Friday. OC's next home game will be Dec. 11 against Manhattan Christian (Kan.).
